El Camino Real, "the royal way," got its name from Spanish explorers and churchmen busily building a network of missions up and down California in the late 18th century. The road was the state's first main drag.

Alas, it never quite lived up to its regal-sounding name. What started out as a dusty trail linking the missions has become an ill-designed, traffic-choked artery lined with a jumble of commercial and residential buildings, much of it garish or shabby, that looks slammed together without much thought.

Instead of the stately main street it should be, it is a utilitarian state highway intended to move cars along as fast as possible, and it doesn't even do that very well at rush hour. It's not a destination, it's a pipeline and an eyesore.

From Daly City to San Jose, popular restaurants operate a few blocks from neon-lit adult book stores, and expensive condos share the street with aging motels and taverns. Strip malls, muffler shops and fast-food joints crowd shoulder-to-shoulder along much of the thoroughfare.

Now, much as San Francisco officials want to make Market Street into an avenue worthy of its history, civic leaders and thinkers on the Peninsula have formed a task force called the Grand Boulevard Initiative and hope to turn El Camino Real into, well, a grand boulevard.

Some of their visions:

-- A major street designed to be enjoyed, not just used.

-- A vibrant, world-class avenue that's economically and environmentally viable and is friendly to pedestrians, bicyclists - and even cars.

-- Centralized parking structures that are more convenient than parallel-parking on a busy highway.

-- Housing set back behind greenbelts instead of looming over traffic.

-- Neighborhood businesses, regional shopping centers and convenient clusters of stores surrounding downtown cores instead of strip malls and a clutter of shops next to two or three lanes of bumper-to-bumper auto congestion.

-- Better transit systems, such as a designated bus-only lane so regional vehicles can get you where you want to go without having to stop every two blocks - and won't clog the flow of private vehicles.

-- Interesting outdoor spaces and sitting areas where it's pleasant to hang out and look at public art.

The group has quietly built impressive political support. All 19 of the cities linked by this troublesome traffic corridor have signed onto these goals - or have said they will.

Now it's time to build public support. The coalition needs an energetic campaign to raise its profile (for instance, have you ever heard of the Grand Boulevard Initiative?). Then it needs to actively seek the public's backing and invite it to participate in this innovative idea.

The other side of the street: Citizens need to get involved, to keep this movement moving. Political support coupled with public support can translate into action.

The task force is a remarkable, intriguing undertaking: It consists of representatives of several city, county, regional and state government agencies, but it has no elected board, no paid administrators, no staff.

It calls itself the "coalition of the willing," because it avoids telling anybody what to do. No new government agency will force a one-size-fits-all plan on the Peninsula's diverse communities. But with this group's help, those communities, to their credit, have found a common goal without a costly bureaucracy.

Urban planning usually happens from the top down. This is planning from the ground up. And it sounds suspiciously like regional thinking. Careful, this could catch on.